There are many reasons that enterprises engage with us for a roadmapping project. Perhaps it’s because technical or functional dependencies exist between multiple lines of business or geographies. Or, there are specific characteristics of the enterprise that make it difficult to understand where to start or how to proceed with a Dynamics 365 implementation.

For whatever the reason, our experience shows that a good roadmap exercise will lead to better implementation of Dynamics 365 in the long run – an up-front investment will certainly pay off down the road (pun intended).

So, what exactly do we mean by roadmapping? Simply put, a Roadmapping Engagement is a multi-week discovery of the various lines of business and/or geographies in the enterprise. We analyze the business processes, recommend Dynamics 365 features and functionality and assess the technical landscape upon which the features and functionality will be built.

There are three main deliverables for a typical roadmap engagement – there may be more depending of the needs of the organization:

Findings document

Rollout sequence

Rough order of magnitude

Findings Document

The findings document is the result of discovery workshops held with each of the business units and/or geographies. Here is a sample of the areas we delve into:

Overall enterprise goals

Business needs

High-level business processes

Technical landscape including other systems, data, security and internal capabilities

Ability of Dynamics 365 to solve business problems with out-of-the-box functionality

Organizational change management and training

Rollout Sequence

This deliverable addresses the question of timing. Specifically, we determine the order for the various implementations to occur. Consideration is given to the following:

Budgets across lines of business or geographies

Technical complexities

Quick wins to establish value of Dynamics across the enterprise

Software licensing

Severity of business need

Preparedness of the various lines of business

Seasonality

Business efficiencies gained, among others

Viability of deploying Dynamics 365 simultaneously across various businesses

Rough Order of Magnitude

A Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) accompanies our findings to produce a high-level budget. After beginning each implementation, we refine the estimates further to more accurate scope, budget and timeline estimates.

What’s Next?

Completion of the roadmap typically results in a Preliminary Statement of Work for the first project in the newly founded program. It is here where the groundwork is laid for developing the application, establishing program governance, and starting the organizational change management activities that will permeate throughout the engagement.

Success!

The following are some of our most recent and highly successful roadmapping engagements by vertical:

Financial Services – an 18-week roadmap at one of the largest investment management firms.

Healthcare – a 14-week engagement at a major Midwest health insurance payor as they migrated their businesses to the Microsoft Cloud – which includes a steady rollout of Dynamics 365 across their enterprise.

Retail – a 10-week roadmap project with one of America’s largest electronics retail company.

What are you waiting for? If your enterprise has been considering a move to Dynamics 365, we’d like to hear about it. Contact us!